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- Title: Where is Tony Blunt?
- Author: Joseph Mitcham
- Publisher: Independently Published on November 12, 2020
- Genre: Crime Thriller
- Pages: 324
- Format: Paperback & Digital
- Rating: 3/5
Many thanks to Emma at Damppebbles Blog Tours and Joseph Mitcham for providing me with a copy of Where is Tony Blunt? in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger Warnings: Graphic Violence, Murder, Terrorism with Mass Murder
Available Now: Amazon US
Where is Tony Blunt? Book Blurb
Where is Tony Blunt? The former Paratrooper, having been taken into the fold of an emerging, ambitious, and savage fundamentalist group, has gone to ground without a trace.
Alex, the former Army communicator, is persuaded to return by John, the ex-Special Forces senior, to help track down the terrorist group that killed their leader and several other comrades – Tony Blunt is their only lead.
Working with multiple agencies, including The Security Service, can Alex and the team locate Blunt and stop him before he executes his masterpiece?
Blurb Provided by the Author
My Review
I don’t know where to start with this novel. Joseph Mitcham gives us an intriguing book full of action and intrigue. But there are also times where I am appalled.
I spent most of this book feeling terrible about Tony. All he wanted was a home and a family, but instead, he found nothing but bullies around him. In the army, these guys ridiculed him so much that it was nauseating for me to read. It is no wonder he joined up with a terrorist group.
The “good guys” are John, Alex, Cliff, Blakey, and Spence. Not one of these people has a redeeming quality. John is especially vulgar. The rest are no better though. My take is that the author meant for Alex to be the redeeming member of the group. But I found him soft and a bit of a coward.
Now that I have the bad stuff out of my system, I will tell you about the fantastic parts of this book. This novel is jam-packed full of action! A book with a lot of movement makes me giddy, and this one delivers. I found myself right there in the thick of it with these characters. I may not have liked them, but they know how to put on a show.
Another thing that I appreciated was that the author explained his military speak. Whenever he used military words or acronyms, he explained what they meant or what they stood for. But, Mitcham’s descriptions do not pull the reader out of the flow of the book. He wrote these explanations as part of the storyline and did it very well. Other military style books describe these words as an aside. This breaks the flow or assumes that readers already know what they mean. So, the way Mitcham writes is wonderful for the reader.
I found myself enjoying this book, even though the characters are despicable. The details are what sold this book to me. So, I am comfortable awarding this novel 3 out of 5 stars. I do recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys intrigue and military-based books. Though I must say that this is the second novel in a series, and I read it as a standalone. It would work much better if I read the first book called The Watch List before starting this one.
About the Author – Joseph Mitcham
Joseph Mitcham served with the British military in elite and technical units for over 16 years. His service not only gave him a thorough tactical and technical understanding of some of techniques and processes employed in his first novel, it also provided him with the opportunity to develop himself,
earning a first class honours degree in business leadership by the end of his service.
His debut novel, The Watch List, was published in 2019. The inspiration for writing ‘The Watch List’ was taken from personal experiences from the roles that he has served in and characteristics from some of the people that he has served with. Joseph has written an incredible, yet compellingly credible story that plays out in our world as he sees it today.
Thanks for being part of the blog tour xx
My pleasure as always.
Great review! I also hate when all of the characters of a book are terrible people. I’m always like “you expect me to cheer these people on?”
Yep, that was my thought.